Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

[Edgy MD]

Meeting a young woman jumping from universe to universe, pursued by a demon, Dr. Steven Strange joins her in search of The Book of Vishanti. Realizing that witchcraft has initiated this youngster's plight, he turns to Wanda Maximov for advice. Things go sideways.



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[Willets Point]

Kind of fun, has Raimi's fingerprints all over it.

[soupcan]

Just watched this the other night. Two thumbs up.



Big fan, loved the Illuminati scene.

[Edgy MD]

I'm glad youse enjoyed it. It didn't work at all for me.



There's a end-credits scene that's supposed to be comic. It's a minor spoiler to describe it so I'll put it in small type, but a character who was placed under a spell early in the film, compelled to squirt condiments on himself, slap himself, and eventually punch himself in the face again and again, finally stopped. Realizing the spell had worn off, he looked at the camera and said in relief, "It's over!"



This seemed to me to be an amazingly honest statement by the director about his own film, that continuing to watch it 'til the end felt like punching myself in the face repeatedly, non-stop, and feeling neither satisfaction nor catharsis, but only blessed relief at the end.



Roger Ebert once described a film as seemingly created during a Hollywood shopping spree, and that's what this was here — like the filmmakers had a limited amount of time to run around Hollywood and grab stuff off the shelves from other, better movies. It opens with an action sequence, in a metaphysical setting where you don't really know how physics works, so you're not sure who is actually in danger and or even who the non-Dr. Strange characters are. That's OK. A lot of good action movies (and seemingly every Bond film) opens with an extra-contextual action sequence. Then they cut to opening the credits, and the context begins. You meet characters, you are given exposition and backstory, you slowly begin to feel a connection and an emotional stake.



I got none of that here. We jump to a new action sequence, and then another and another, cool stuff happens, little dialogue passes, and we bolt from universe to universe. But even though we're told that these are real people in these alternate universes with real lives, nobody seems to give a shit. The filmmaker doesn't care, and when all these alternative universe versions of popular heroes and characters die, it's all good, because we're cutting out of this universe as soon as we can jump to another one. Disposable people. It made me feel like a jerky spoiled kid who doesn't take care of his toys, because his parents will get him new ones anyway.



Action sequence piles upon action sequence, but none of it matters. There's a shot out of Lord of the Rings, there's another from Carrie, there's a shot from The Ring, and a shot from Jonathan Strange and Dr. Norrell, another LotR set piece, and there's Rami self-referencing his own zombie movies. All are grabbed from the shelf of the Better Movie Supermarket — but rather than being clever, it just reminds you that this film has so little at its own core. You go back and watch the prior Strange film, and you appreciate an actual story arc that is absent here. You remember that Wong and Mordo were fleshed-out characters and not just comic relief.



Marvel is creating a generation of young adult, mostly female heroes for their next generation of films, and America, the new hero here, certainly seems like someone I'd like. But I ended up meeting her on a punishing, herky-jerky amusement park ride, and that's a tough way to get to know anybody. But it did help me enjoy the earlier Dr. Strange film on rewatch.